


Not a Bad Start

by stepOnMeZenos



Category: Final Fantasy XIV
Genre: (if you squint), Alternate Universe - Science Fiction, Asexual Zenos yae Galvus, M/M, Mechanic Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Touch-Starved Zenos yae Galvus, Trans Male Character, Trans Male Warrior of Light (Final Fantasy XIV), Trans Male Zenos yae Galvus, ZenoHika Week Winter 2021 (Final Fantasy XIV)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-05
Updated: 2021-02-05
Packaged: 2021-03-17 05:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,390
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29219991
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stepOnMeZenos/pseuds/stepOnMeZenos
Summary: Sorkhatu was the augment mechanic, and Zenos the patron, and that was the extent of their relationship.Or was it?ZenoHika Week Winter 2021, prompt: Scifi AU
Relationships: Zenos yae Galvus/Warrior of Light
Comments: 2
Kudos: 15





	Not a Bad Start

**Author's Note:**

> I think this one is probably my favourite out of this event's batch.

As always, the workshop was in a state of total disarray. 

Zenos stepped past a few seemingly broken components strewn about the floor, though with Sorkhatu, there was never any saying whether they weren't simply some avant-garde experiment that merely _looked_ like it was trash. What were they even made of? He didn't recall ordering these parts for him… 

As he approached the main work desk, Sorkhatu swivelled around on his chair. “I thought I heard the door slide open. Perfect timing. I applied the finishing touches to your upgrade just now.“ 

No greeting, much less the formalities normally required when speaking to the heir of an intergalactic empire. Sorkhatu treated him like an old friend turned client who'd come to visit. His father would find it infuriating; Zenos, on the other hand, considered it refreshing. Decorum took up a vexing amount of time better used for other matters. 

“Tell me about it,“ he said. “How will it improve my augments?“

“Visual acuity should go up by 40%, give or take a few. I also took the liberty of incorporating the latest advances in infrared sight...“

“I've not heard of any.“

Sorkhatu grinned. “The black market occasionally gets ahead of what's officially available.“ 

Of course. Even after moving to his palace to serve as his personal augment mechanic, Sorkhatu had not relinquished his less legal contacts and channels. Zenos was well aware of it, and didn't care. It would be hypocritical to be bothered by such things. The empire was not above using similar or even the same channels for its own means. 

“And don't worry,“ Sorkhatu added after a moment. “This time it won't malfunction. I tested it myself.“ 

“Excellent. Is it ready for implanting, then?“

Sorkhatu nodded as he put on a pair of gloves. “It's trivial. Let me take it out for a moment.“ 

Together, they headed over to the medical cot at the side of the room. It was outfitted with a variety of diagnostics systems and tools to handle the more complicated augments, however Zenos' eye had been custom-built to be easy to extract and improve upon. He could not afford his eye to be unusable for extended periods of time while waiting to have access to the proper tools, after all. 

Through the biomechanical wire connecting the eye to his brain, he gave the command for it to shut down as he settled down on the cot. Half the world turned dark. He couldn't see what Sorkhatu's tiny fingers were doing, but he heard the click of the lock mechanism disengaging. Sorkhatu pulled the eye out of the socket—which was, of course, itself a biomechanical implant at this point—and carried it back to his desk. 

“This will only take a minute,“ he called back. 

Zenos turned his head and watched him work with his remaining eye (still biological). He'd already removed the outer casing. The speed and precision in which Sorkhatu dismantled the augment, which contained parts that bordered on microscopic, never ceased to astonish. Part of it was Sorkhatu's own augments, of course; he had a cybernetic eye as well, and augments to improve his hand-eye coordination beyond what was possible with a wholly biological body, and a slew of other implants beyond that. Nonetheless, without his innate talent for these matters, no amount of augments would elevate him to the level he worked at. 

Talent was something Zenos could respect, even if it was in an area other than fighting. 

Out went the old circuit, in the new one, and then Sorkhatu put the casing back on and brought the eye back. 

“Now, this might take a few minutes to get used to,“ he said as he pushed the eye back into the socket. “You know how it is.“

He did. The brain implant that merged the cybernetic eye's footage with what his biological eye saw required some time to find a new equilibrium every time Sorkhatu upgraded anything in his visual system. He'd grown accustomed to it over time. 

Once Sorkhatu had finished reinserting the eye, he turned it on. Immediately, he experienced the now familiar sensation of his visions shifting against each other. One side was almost painfully vivid in its colours, including some his biological eye couldn't even see; this side made out the tiniest details, minute scratches on the walls, each and every individual strand of Sorkhatu's hair, the subtle colour variation in his eyes… 

The other side was painful in its own right, because of how dull it looked. Washed out colours covered by a blurriness that made him blink nervously, as if to clear his sight, but of course that did not help. His eye was quite alright. It was his brain that had not yet reconfigured its sight to match the superior augment. 

Much as he would have liked to close his eyes while the configuration process ran, the brain implant needed the sight to devise a calculation matrix that would shift his biological sight to match the cybernetic one. When he moved his head, the two sights moved out of alignment. Very briefly, he saw two different things with his two eyes. The slightest hint of nausea rose in him.

“Is it bad this time?“ Sorkhatu asked. “I can look into improving the algorithm to make it less unpleasant...“ 

“No need. It will pass.“ 

“Stop playing tough guy.“

Zenos moved his head a fraction and looked at Sorkhatu. A concerned look adorned his face. 

“I can tell you're not feeling well,“ he said. “There is no need to suffer through this if I can make adjustments to the process.“ 

Part of Zenos wanted to protest; Sorkhatu had more useful things to work on than shortening a process that took a few minutes at most, and that only occurred on the rare days when his eye implant received improvements. 

That part went silent the moment Sorkhatu took his hand. The touch felt unnaturally warm against his skin, as if something had set his nerve regulators to maximum intensity. Zenos' breath hitched just for a moment. How unfamiliar it felt, and yet so _right_. None but Sorkhatu would dare to simply _grab_ at him like that; others were wise enough to keep their distance.

“I don't enjoy seeing you like this,“ Sorkhatu said. “Simple as that.“

What a strange thing for an augment mechanic to say. Their line of work generally necessitated causing discomfort; having new augments installed was rarely a pleasant experience. Should he not have gotten used to it by now?

Ah, but this was about _that_ , wasn't it. 

“I have given some thought to what you said to me last week,“ Zenos said. Last week, when Sorkhatu had bid him sit down, as he had something to say… 

Sorkhatu squeezed his hand—another unfamiliar yet pleasant sensation—, but remained silent. 

His sight was adjusting by now. The dull colours slowly made way for the vibrant spectacle his other eye was seeing. Zenos slowly exhaled. “I do not know what to make of it.“ 

“You don't have to—“

“I have not finished speaking yet.“ But what was it that he wanted to say? All of this was terra incognita for him. “I find myself in a state of confusion… when I brought you into my employ, I had not expected our relationship to be aught but that between a mechanic and his patron. Now that it has changed, I am at a loss. I have little and less experience with these matters.“ 

Sorkhatu raised an eyebrow. “I find that hard to believe, admittedly. Crown prince of the empire, possessed of ungodly beauty, and you never—“ 

“i have tried it,“ Zenos said. “There is certainly no shortage of volunteers when it comes to entering relationships with me. However, I found no joy in it. Dull, boring people, all of them...“

Sorkhatu's face fell. He tried to hide it, but the signs were unmistakable. 

“That being said,“ Zenos continued, choosing his words very carefully, “for all that I do not understand my own feelings on the matter, I would like to give it another try, I think.“ 

And he did. On the way to Sorkhatu's workshop he had mulled the question over without coming to a conclusion, but now that he lay here, holding Sorkhatu's hand, the answer was so much more obvious. 

The smile spreading across Sorkhatu's face was radiant. “Truly?“

“Have you known me to be a liar?“ 

“Not even once,“ Sorkhatu said. “That being said, I had… concerns about confessing. In truth, I did not think you would… well, say what you just did.“

That was a more awkward sentence than Zenos had ever heard him speak, which above all else drove home that this was really happening, somehow. 

“Why would you think that?“

“Why _wouldn't_ I think that?“ Sorkhatu asked. “You've never given me any reason to indicate you reciprocated my feelings, and I know what kind of person you're looking for. Even if you hadn't told me early on, it wouldn't have been hard to guess what exactly you wanted all those combat augments for. I can hold my own in a fistfight, but I don't care for it and I have no delusions about being able to match you in combat. So what would you want with me?“ 

“Neither can anyone else,“ Zenos said. His sight had normalised enough that he felt confident in sitting up. Though Sorkhatu was standing next to the cot, his head still only reached up to Zenos' shoulder. How tiny he was… “Unlike my previous opponents, you are possessed of skill in your own right; not in the arena I seek, perhaps, but you are far from useless. As I have found naught but disappointment in my chosen quest, maybe it is time to seek elsewhere...“ 

“Would that really make you happy, though? I've seen you grow bored of other people in an instant.“ 

“I am perfectly willing to find out,“ Zenos said as he swung his legs off of the cot and stood up. “It seems unlike you to sell yourself so short.“ Sorkhatu's self-confidence as a mechanic had never wavered, for as long as Zenos had known him. 

“What can I say?“ Sorkhatu looked at their hands, still intertwined even though he now had to reach upwards to keep the connection. “I've never failed at making the augment I wanted. I can't say the same about relationships. And I want to make this work, I really do.“ 

Well. Truthfully, the same could be said of Zenos as well. None of his relationships _had_ worked out. The cause of failure had been boredom and subsequent banishment of his prospective love interest, which was less likely to occur with Sorkhatu, but he could not say that he truly knew how to make a relationship function. How hard could it be, though? The others had been half-hearted efforts at best, with a marked lack of actual attraction if he compared them to Sorkhatu. 

“It will be fine. As to the other matter you brought up a while ago...“ Zenos let go of Sorkhatu's hand and walked over to the desk, where he settled down on the chair. His sight had recovered completely. It did indeed seem that his visual acuity had improved with this upgrade, which made the annoyance of the adjustment period more than worth it. 

Sorkhatu followed him. “I don't quite remember what you're referring to.“

“You asked me whether I 'wanted a dick', as you could custom-build one for me.“

“Riiiight,“ Sorkhatu said. “I did say that, didn't I? That's a bit awkward now, isn't it? I wasn't actually planning on confessing when I asked about it...“ 

Zenos squinted at Sorkhatu. He _was_ acting differently. Preciously he had not at all been shy about discussing these things, whether it was by casually mentioning he'd changed something about his own or talking about potential new technology for it. “Nothing about the way we interact needs to change.“ 

“Most people would find it strange for someone to ask them if they wanted a custom penis prosthetic before confessing their love...“ Sorkhatu shrugged. “But I suppose most people are significantly more normal than you. I'll get over it.“ 

As well he should. Zenos had no interest in changing how they conducted themselves around each other. Sorkhatu's refreshing lack of reverence was one of his better points. “Regardless. I do not believe I have much use for it, though I will notify you if I change my mind on the matter.“ He'd been fine without one for all his life, and he felt no need to acquire one either. What would he do with it? Urinate standing up? What a pointless addition…

“Suit yourself,“ Sorkhatu said. “Just remember that the ones I make work better than any organic dick. Though I suppose you might see for yourself one of these days… if you want to.“ 

Did he want to? Sex had bored him, but maybe that too would be different with Sorkhatu. Zenos shelved the question for later. “Seeing how we are, apparently, a couple now, we should perhaps do… couple activities.“ 

“The way you said this does not fill me with confidence that you know what that entails.“ 

He had a point. Though he remembered what his partners in previous shortlived relationships had expressed interest in, none of it seemed appealing, neither to him nor to Sorkhatu. 

“I choose to take your silence as a no,“ Sorkhatu said. “Well, neither do I, considering that the last date I went on before you hired me could be politely described as a complete disaster, so this will be a learning process for both of us, hm?“

A learning process…

Somehow, that was an appealing thought.

“Then I shall endeavour to learn,“ he said. “In the meantime, though I do not need you to craft me a penis, I do have orders for you...“ 

Sorkhatu took his hand again as he listened. A part of Zenos he had not realised he possessed mellowed out in response. Perhaps he should have hired someone specifically to hold his hand; but then, if he had not gone without physical contact, would it feel as good to have Sorkhatu touch him now?

Either way, there were many worse ways to learn how to be a couple than holding hands, Zenos decided.

**Author's Note:**

> Comments appreciated.


End file.
